EU Regulators Delay Google's Motorola Buy, Seeking More Info 45
judgecorp writes "The European Commission is delaying Google's proposed purchase of Motorola Mobility, saying it wants 'more infromation.' Europe may be nervous of the power the purchase will give Google in the mobile space."
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Bad troll, bad..
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Absolutely, only Microsoft and Apple should be allowed to patent trolls. Other companies should not even be allowed to defend themselves against MS and Apple.
By the way: how many scam lawsuits has Google filed? And how about MS and Apple?
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Google is incorporated in the EU too and they review all big mergers like this. You're talking nonsense.
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I agree with you, big mergers should be reviewed... though the timing seems slightly suspicious... motorola announces a battle with apple... and pouf, they get called in by the regulator. In this case, given apple's litigative anti competitive behavior, it may be a good way to even out the playing field
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Our instead of making up conspiracies you can notice how the article quotes Google that this is routine procedure.
Re:Wonder how much Apple paid the EU regulators... (Score:4, Informative)
This is probably why the EU is interested in the Google purchase of Motorola. The listing below are just the UK company details, I'm quite sure there's a Google and Motorola Solutions office in each EU member state. Just because the group head office is in the US doesn't remove the merger being scrutinised by non-US entities. One would think the you consider the USA is the centre of the world by your last comment...
MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS UK LIMITED
JAYS CLOSE
VIABLES IND EST
BASINGSTOKE HANTS
RG22 4PD
Company No. 00912182
And
GOOGLE UK LIMITED
BELGRAVE HOUSE
76 BUCKINGHAM PALACE ROAD
LONDON
SW1W 9TQ
Company No. 03977902
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Of course it's more than likely to be more complicated than that :)
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Re:Wonder how much Apple paid the EU regulators... (Score:5, Informative)
Motorola Problems (opposite of Solutions) is a US company. Google is a US company.
Why is the EU even getting involved at all? This has nothing to do with them, other than the fact that some of their lobbyists see Apple dollars and that hamstringing this merger would help keep Apple with the upper hand in this patent polka that all the phone companies are forced to play.
Maybe the EU should look at other things like banks, and their problems.
Google has officially asked the EU regulation commission on its statement to the merger.
Even though the commission could not stop them from merging, there could be serious consequences after the merger in the EU member states.
So it is in Google's best interest, to get an OK by the EU.
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Oh, I forgot ... EU Banks? Didn't the US banks kicked off this whole mess in the first place?
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The US financial crisis and the rating agencies didn't help, but they mostly uncovered the crap that was already accumulated - unsustainable policies, hidden debt, lack of a real common vision as an Union, etc. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
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Credible Sources... (Score:2)
To be frank, reading about the EU and Euro in a British publication is about as reasonable as reading about Jews in the Al-Qaida magazine.
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To be frank, reading about the EU and Euro in a British publication is about as reasonable as reading about Jews in the Al-Qaida magazine.
This made me LOL.
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Its not a bad thing to be biased against a really bad idea. Its like saying Science journal is biased against Creati
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I strongly disagree with that. They clearly outlined the problems with Greece from day one. The whole idea of the Euro ever working is and always has been a fantasy, just like the idea that housing prices would always go up.
The British press is on whole very terrible, you'll get no arguments from me in general. However, the Economist is quite different from news of the world or even the London Times. You paint with too broad a brush.
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It was pretty much just banks in general with their dodgy loan policies wasn't it?
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Yep
correction, it is their business (Score:2)
You haven't been paying attention. The EU likes to make themselves relevant for all kinds of mergers that aren't any of their business. (Oracle/Sun and GE/Honeywell off the top of my head). Doubly so when it could affect a European company -- perhaps you've heard of Nokia?
If a US-based company is also registered in the EU and conducts massive business operations therein, then mergers and acquisitions by said company are, you know, kinda like "ZOMG Kim Kardashian LOLCATS" under EU jurisdiction. Ergo, it is their business to nose around.
I think the EU's nosing around in these mergers (Moto+Google, Oracle+Sun) are really stupid (and horrendously costly for the companies involved). But we are not debating the is/ought meta-ethics conundrum, but observing the EU exercising its
Don't Understand? (Score:4, Interesting)
All of the companies mentioned operate in Europe, that makes it the EU's business. You clearly don't understand the situation.
I'm assuming you're an American, it seems you have very strong feelings about "your" companies despite the fact that they operate abroad. They're incorporated in Europe. If they operate in the EU, they're subject to European laws. If you want to sell your products in Europe, you will be subject to our market regulations and laws.
The same principle applies to European and other companies in other markets including the US. You're being very narrow minded and strongly nationalistic, yet your nation, the United States of America, is the strongest advocate of globalization and free trade.
If you can't take the pain, don't play the game!
As for your ludicrous claim that this has anything to do with Nokia, Europeans are not "Europeans" first and foremost. Nokia is a Finnish concern. There are few if any other European countries interested in what happens to a Finnish company. Did you even know that there are several other European cellphone makers? SonyEricsson of Sweden for example, and there are others.
Your next suggestion would probably be "lobbyists", however the European equivalent of the US Congress, the European Parliament, doesn't really have that kind of power and neither do the lobbyists. We're not as corrupt as the US on a federal level, that remains on a national level.
In the EU the national leaders are all naturally looking out for their own country's interests, the EU itself on the other hand cuts evenly and is only interested in fair competition regardless of your origin. The EU's competition authority and courts don't give a rats ass about your claims, they're vigilant and justly so, in the interest of the average European consumer.
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Motorola Problems (opposite of Solutions) is a US company. Google is a US company.
Why is the EU even getting involved at all? This has nothing to do with them, other than the fact that some of their lobbyists see Apple dollars and that hamstringing this merger would help keep Apple with the upper hand in this patent polka that all the phone companies are forced to play.
Maybe the EU should look at other things like banks, and their problems.
Bro, the existence of conglomerates with assets in multiple continents (and thus subject to multiple judicial systems) is a hard to grasp notion in that isolated cow town of yours, ain't it <pulls out banjo>squeal little piggie</pulls out banjo>
Dangerous delays (Score:4, Insightful)
Although I am generally in favor of the government organizations checking on private companies (I think there is no such thing as a *fully* free market), I think the EU is sometimes overshooting their goal. It seems to me that there is no reason to disallow this deal. So generally what happens is just the delay, which can kill the value of the company that is being taken over. Sure, large take overs take time, but adding time to the deal in this fast paced sector can cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars really quick. Hopefully they will not take months (again) to validate the deal.
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The US Justice Department issued its own request for additional documents in September, delaying US progress on the deal.
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And you don't see the difference between a US regulatory agency looking into a merger between two American companies and an EU agency doing the same?
The EU is welcome to do whatever they please, but it does not alter the question of why. (Based on other posts it seems the answer in this case is "because Google asked them to," though that has nothing at all to do with what the Justice Department is or is not doing.)
Let's be honest... (Score:3, Insightful)
And you don't see the difference between a US regulatory agency looking into a merger between two American companies and an EU agency doing the same?
Isn't it odd how people still believe a multinational corporation is "American" in spite of all of our previous discussions about how they have restructured themselves to minimize their US corporate taxes, spreading their assets and operations in different jurisdictions, and embedding their revenue gathering into many world markets?
On the one hand, I don't fee
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And you don't see the difference between a US regulatory agency looking into a merger between two American companies and an EU agency doing the same?
The EU is welcome to do whatever they please, but it does not alter the question of why.
Maybe because both companies (Shitorola and Google) are also registered in the EU, and both conduct substantial operations therein? Just a pretty fucking wild guess.
Open Android (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Open Android (Score:4, Interesting)
If they were to offer such a feature, I'm guessing they would also give carriers the option to disable it.
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I wouldn't mind seeing a device ship locked, but with fastboot oem unlock available. This way, there is at least a barrier against the Dancing Bunnies attack, where Joe Sixpack is at least likely to think twice if he has to download a package from Oracle, then one from Google, and after installing those, type some commands in a funny window in order to get some app to work.
I'd love to see Motorola do like HTC and offer not just an open bootloader, but full ROM images ready to use for custom modding. Espec
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Exactly. My HTC Inspire 4G, I rooted, gold-card S/OFF-ed, and unlocked while in the AT&T store. The Droid X now isn't too bad (I SHX flashed to the latest ROM, then rooted and added ClockworkMod for fast and thorough backups [1].)
What is annoying is that new models like the Atrix 2 don't even have factory ROMs out in the wild, so even a soft brick/bootloop isn't recoverable at this time.